My Friend Pedro – Let’s Go Bananas

The Killer, 1989, is probably John Woo’s best film next to Hard Boiled. The scene in the church (the house scene) is action choreography at its best. Action scenes when done right are like a dance, everything unfurls and glides — an artform with style, finesse and grace.

DeadToast Entertainment’s My Friend Pedro is a 2D side-scrolling, run and gun game. Inspired by the movies of John Woo, the goal is to dispatch enemies in extremely cool, inventive ways and to chain them for maximum points. Published by Devolver Digital, this is a highly anticipated indie game.

Starting in a warehouse when a glowing floating banana wakes you up and guides you out, it appears the warehouse is full of henchmen who don’t want you to leave. You must escape and take out these henchmen in the coolest way possible.

My Friend Pedro is all about the gameplay; it’s just pure play and pure fun. You can jump, wall jump, hit, kick, evade (which is a cool little spin), roll and shoot; these mechanics put together to create one of the best game flows I’ve felt in a very long time.

You will jump off a wall, roll, stand up, shoot, then evade; it feels so responsive and innate. Additionally, you can slow down time allowing you to aim with more precision as well as do an awesome spin in the air. Furthermore, if you have two weapons, you can set a lock with one hand while the other has free aim allowing you to clear out sections quickly.

The demo ended with me on a motorbike drinking down a highway, popping wheelies, doing backflips and shooting down cars.

Graphically the game is simplistic with character models being the defining feature. The backgrounds have this noir-esque feel too them, concentrating more on the lighting than the environment itself.

Though, tonally, it fits well with the game providing an ambience to the proceedings. Its strength is that it does not distract from the gameplay, that’s key to the talent of the artist; they knew the gameplay was more important.

So, what do I think? I think this game is fantastic. It’s just so fun! When I put the controller down, I had a grin and knew I’d be buying it.

Everything flows with the game, but most importantly, it just plays well. It reminded me of being a teenager and playing the Tony Hawk games, that enjoyment of just playing. The way you can chain everything together, it’s absorbing and refreshing.

The Switch is the perfect home for this type of title, and for those without a great deal of time, that pick up and play mentality, blast a level here and there, then back to work.

My Friend Pedro is set for a June 2019 release date for Windows and Switch, so grab a banana and go dancing.